Mahabaleshwar May 2007

I just spent a weekend with my best friends in Mahabaleshwar and Satara.
Although every bit of it was like living a real life Sitcom, I would like to introduce all “my readers” ;) to my BEST FRIENDS and the highlights of the trip. The select few people who make me laugh and take me for whoever I am! (Yes, even though I refuse to stay up till 3 AM to play Teen Patti without real money)
Here’s a description of the characters and the roles of my funny show.

1.Amit ( The [handsome!?] guy in the black T-shirt with a sinister 10 sign on it)
He was in charge of booking the car (which showed up an hour and a half late and then got a flat tube on the very first toll point in our journey). Obsessed with making people pose for photographs using innovative ideas, he made Nikhil sprint 100 meters with him to get an “athletic picture” of himself. Oh and we were supposed to anticipate and click in between the sprint which obviously we couldn’t. He made us climb a tree or look in different directions for a group photo! He finds it weird that the three girls spent so much time in shoe shops and bag shops in Mahabaleshwar but we are supposed to react very calmly to the fact that he made the driver pull a Raikonen on our way back because he had a football match! He is also the one who said, “I am hungry” just fifteen minutes after every gigantic meal. And he is the guy who made sure that all the girls got compliments on their hair, their kurtas, their sense of humor and their attitudes. :)

2.Neha ( Tall, skinny and infinitely long legs ;))
The dainty princess of the group. In charge of all the fussing. She fussed about everything from her position in the car to the lights in her room. She had Ameya to oppose some of her “requests” creating something close to a meowing catfight at 3 AM. The two cats were completely silenced by a tigress and no points for guessing who she was! She suffers from a perpetual motion sickness and used to pop a pill the moment she got into the car. She would be out as a light bulb in five minutes and then would collapse on the people sitting next to her with every turn!
We dutifully woke up our Olive Oyl look-alike or just made her sleep-shift from the window to the center when someone needed to grab the window seat. She opened up a bit when she won all the teen patti games at night although she was running on a battery back up! And she also managed to take some great pictures because of her artistic frame of reference! :)

3.Mangoose (Tanned ;), athletic with an egg shaped face and OMNIPRESENT)
His real name is Mangesh, but we prefer calling him Mangoose.He was in charge of breaking into a Himesh Reshammiya song every thirty seconds, one of his latest minus even the teeny tiny amount of melody in Himesh Reshammiya’s voice. When we didn’t have it coming out of his mouth, he used to insist on playing it on the CD player. He also won the award for the “ Worst-Car-DJ” ever! We had to beg him to change the song. All during the trip he was in LOVE with all the cameras on board. He took a picture of himself on each and every rock in Mahabaleshwar and every time anyone of us posed for a picture, he used to pop up from behind and come into the frame. If you asked him to click your picture; you had to return the “favor” by clicking one of his on the same spot! He was also the one who overfed himself and had to have a cup of antacid before his scrumptious breakfast. What makes this guy truly a winner however is that in spite of getting almost sick from overeating, he scored winning goals in the match he was supposed to play in the evening and got his name published in newspapers the next day!


4.Ameya ( Cute Cute Cute :D)
Madame Ameya was in charge of the accounts and used to land herself in a big confusion with an extra hundred or a missing hundred every two hours and then we all had to remember everything we bought during that time! She nearly broke my ribs taking sharp turns at 80 KMPH on a go-carting track because only the drivers got a seat belt. Our car witnessed a mind-boggling victory over the others because all through the five laps not once did Ameya try to find out how the brakes work. She has a weak point of taking pictures of people when they are sleeping or when they have rose syrup on their face that they are not aware of. She insisted on going to sunset point at 3.30 in the afternoon! She made me go in a Giant Wheel and we got hoarse voices from so much screaming! The most endearing thing however was the way her eyes well up from laughing every time she has a good laugh. People made her laugh just to see her cry!


5.Nikhil (Somewhat cute, found in black and blue)
He played the gracious host, who provided us with free five star accommodations at his super-cool place in Satara! I guess we enjoyed being with him and his parents more than we did in Mahabaleshwar. He comes next in the category of breaking into a song. And he was the runner up for the “Worst-Car-DJ-Ever” award. Refreshingly hilarious, he was in charge of asking funny questions after every other statement you made. He is the only one who can beat me in cracking jokes that no one laughs at. Dr.Ameya and Nikhil used to break into these technical fitness talks and get all of us yawning away to glory. He took us around with an uncertain authority on the roads leading to waterfalls until we found a quite, pristine lake. But all of us freaked out when we saw a live snake in the water and about two meters of abandoned snakeskin just behind the rock we were sitting on!

6.Me (Look under the big white hat or the gypsy scarf! )
Well if you ask me, I was the epitome of perfection all through the trip. I was also the “Good Manners” representative of the group when we were around Nikhil’s parents. I am sure if any of these people were as creative as I am; they would have said that I was in charge of passing sarcastic comments and getting everybody’s optimism down. I was the one who slept at 11 PM and “disciplined” people when they tried to wake me up. I was the one who took three bags for a two day long journey; complete with shower gel, three extra pairs of all kinds of clothes, ear cleaning swabs and yeah a BOOK! (Which I DID read for about fifteen minutes when people were getting ready). Oh and if I am allowed to really praise myself, I got the “Best-car-DJ-ever” award for spinning out the most amazing songs from a bundle of hopelessly mixed up CDs.